Did your country make the cut?

The Quality of Life Index, published by International Living magazine for the 30th year, recently revealed its list of the top places to live in the world. Congratulations to France for grabbing the number one spot for the fifth year in a row. The UK didn’t fare quite as well, falling five spots to number 25 on the list. The Daily Mail says it best: “While the British are infamous for a love of TV dinners and binge drinking, the French savour the finer things in life.”

194 countries were surveyed on nine categories – Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk and Climate.International Livinggathers data from sources such as the World Health Organization and government websites; however, according to the website they also take into account what contributing editors have to say about the list. Well at least they flat out state their subjectivity in an appropriately titled sidebar called “Our Western Bias”.

France managed to receive 100 points for both its health care system and safety according to the International Business Times. They totaled 81 points in Culture and Leisure, proving that good food and good wine equal big points. The U.S. fell to number seven this year, mostly due to the economy. Italy rounds out the top ten, getting points for their health care system and rich culture. Here is a look at the top ten:

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Survey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Great to read! I love this for a few reasons-
One in that I get to make fun of all those rednecks who (with chewing tobacco stuffed in their lips) scream out that the USA is the F’n best!! and tell them, we’re actually not.

We have a lot to do to be number one, which is actually a wonderful thing in this case (opposed to being number one to just be number one).

I haven’t been to 3, 6, 8 or 10, but I mean it all really depends on what you value. I lived in AUS for a while and it wasn’t THAT much different than the states..but these results are the sums of a few areas so some places are better than others in some aspects.

I love France, but its much like evrywhere else in the world, with some lovely places and some terrible poverty and squalor. Rural France is just beautiful and superb if you have money, but most places can be great if you have money.
If New Zealand is so great, why do they all want to come an live in europe?

I live in the South of France and it is a place of many happy people who work to live and not live to work. This is wonderful. But it must be made clear the cost of living here is extremely high compared to countries like Canada that I have lived in.

On this page here http://www.internationalliving.com/Internal-Components/Further-Resources/qofl2009 the writers of the Quality of Life Index mention as part of their survey research Twelve Croissants cost $2.97. The last time I checked a croissant cost 70 cents (.70 Euro) and there are five bakeries on one long street I know each selling at this price. Now this price times 12 and using the http://www.xe.com currency exchange this works out to be 12.18 Dollars not 2.97 dollars. That is a big difference. Maybe I am focusing on details but I am also thinking about accuracy of information sharing when they suggest France does not have a high cost of living. Just thought I would share. Still life is good and I can see more snow on the hills as I write.

Please note that even though I wrote a book on how to buy organic food inexpensively (which has helped me living here too). The croissant prices I am quoting are for non organic croissants.

This has to be one of the more ridiculous listings I’ve ever seen. Some random chuckleheads sit down around a table and more or less arbitrarily toss together numbers. “Italy’s rich culture”.. right.. I’m sure that includes race riots, Mafia, and endless conflicts between fascist and communist extremists.

And France? With it’s racial segregated cities, and immigration problems so bad they actually have a specific word for raping a French girl to gain status in certain circles. Yeah, scary, huh? On top of that an elitist system that has your university determine the rest of your life, strikes, high taxes.

Even more ridiculous, countries like Norway and Sweden aren’t even mentioned, while the near-divided Belgium (infamous for pedophiles and hate-filled populist political parties like Vlaams Block/Belang) scores high.